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Peace at Last
Reader's Review Peace at Last is a brilliant book for interactive story times in EYFS or KS1 classrooms. Every page is full of noises for readers and children to join in together, a great way to end the day! We enter the book at bedtime in the Bear household, with Daddy Bear, Mummy Bear and Baby Bear all going up the stairs to bed. Mummy Bear falls straight to sleep… accompanied by a rather large snore. As a result Daddy Bear fills the subsequent pages trying to find a quiet place to sleep, and more often than not, failing to do so. The book works well when it is read out loud, as the children can join in with the noises; from the ‘drip drip’ of the tap, to the ‘twit twoo’ of the owl. Eventually, Daddy Bear finds ‘peace at last in sleep’ when he finds Mummy Bear sleeping quietly many hours later. When read out loud, this book will appeal to 3-4yr olds, but is a good read for children themselves in EYFS or KS1 classes. It has a simple plot which children can easily relate to… a frustrating night of struggling to fall asleep, and the adventure which can unfold. It would provoke many conversations between pupils, as every child would want to talk about their own bed time habits. It has simple and compound sentence structures, and repetitive vocabulary, which would give an early reader confidence. It is illustrated with large, one-page drawings and therefore is great to hold up when it is being read. This book has been a household favourite for many years, and it certainly has not lost its vibrancy and charm to entertain. Description ‘Peace at Last’ by Jill Murphy is a fantastic engaging picture book for children. The plot focuses on a family of bears; Mr Bear, Mrs Bear and Baby Bear. One particular evening daddy bear is struggling to fall asleep and so we follow his journey through the house trying to find somewhere comfortable and quiet to sleep. Throughout his journey we encounter a variety of different noises that disrupt daddy bear’s sleep. Once daddy bear finally finds somewhere to sleep it is morning and everybody else wakes up. Reader's Reviews 1 I wonder if daddy bear ever gets to go to sleep. I find this book extremely fun and interesting to explore within the classroom with a variety of different age groups, most suitably EYFS and KS1. How the book is used would differ depending on the age and ability of the children. In ‘Peace at Last’ Jill Murphy uses a variety of language techniques including; speech marks; simple sentences; compound sentences; phonetic words and capital letters for sound words. In addition to this repetition of Mr Bear’s speech “Oh No, I can’t stand this” occurs throughout the book. Jill Murphy draws and includes very detailed colourful illustrations to coincide with each page of writing which could be drawn from in a classroom setting. She also identifies real life objects and noises that children will more often than not heard or seen which allows them to relate to and get more involved in the stories she writes. ‘Peace at Last’ has the ability to be used in a variety of curricular subjects throughout EYFS and KS1 and also some aspects cross-curricularly. Some ideas include listening and sounding out sounds in phonics, using musical instruments for sounds noises in an interactive music session, ordering bear size or learning about clocks and time in maths and writing sentences about the story for English. These ideas are just a small snippet of the books actual potential. 2 These ideas are just a small snippet of the book's actual potential. Overall I find this book extremely light-hearted, fun and something that is guaranteed to get children engaged and interactive however it is used. Parental Guidance *Reading Age: -6 *Reading Aloud Age: 0+ Great book for reading aloud to young children. Lots of things that they can relate to getting involved in. If you like this you might like *Whatever Next *A Quiet Night In *A Piece of Cake External Links *The book on Amazon. *Youtube video of the book being read aloud. Category:Picture books Category:Age 0 Category:Age 2 Category:Age 3 Category:Age 4 Category:Age 5 Category:Age 6